The Princess and the Scoundrel
by KelaSaar
Summary: A great evil has been defeated, Albion has been saved, and yet our lovely heroine feels like something is missing from her happy ending, namely a certain scoundrely soldier, though she's loathe to admit it.


A/n - I've never really tried writing fanfiction before, but after finishing Fable III I simply had to try. How can PM give us a scoundrel with a heart of gold _and_ let us play a princess leading a rebellion with no romance for the two of them? It's positively inhumane, so this is my small attempt to remedy that.

* * *

"So you're really leaving?" Rose asked, joining Ben as he leaned against the railing, the city of Bowerstone spread out peacefully before them, looking almost as though the attack had never happened.

Ben turned to her and his mouth quirked up in a smile. "Court life's not really for me, majesty. Major Swift was always the leader of men, I never wanted any of that. Exploring, adventuring, that's the life for me. I want to see things, not do paperwork all bloody day."

Rose gave him a rueful grin and leaned heavily against the railing, her queenly composure slipping for just a moment, and for once she looked more like a girl barely out of her teens then a courageous Hero-queen. She shook her head. "I can't say I blame you, I never thought being queen would be like this."

"What did you think it would be like?"

Rose sighed expansively. "I don't know, more ball gowns and less ancient evil I guess. I never thought I was going to be queen, so I never put much thought into it."

She lapsed into silence, a far off look in her eyes as she gazed into the distance. Her reverie was interrupted when she felt a hand on her arm. She turned to see Ben looking earnestly at her. "You're a brilliant queen and you know it. We'd never have made it through this mess without you. And the devilishly handsome soldier at your side of course," he finished with a grin.

Rose gave a small laugh and stared at him wonderingly. He always had been the only one who could make her laugh. She grinned back at him.

"I'm really going to miss you, Ben."

It took a moment, but a slightly shocked look stole over Ben's features before being replaced with something else entirely, something rather reminiscent of a cat in the vicinity of a particularly fat canary. "You never call me Ben. Since the Mourningwood it's always been 'Captain Finn', 'Master Finn', 'you idiot', you've never just called me Ben."

Rose pulled away from him, she was in dangerous territory and she knew it. "You're overanalyzing, _Captain_ Finn," she replied with a casual smirk and a cool emphasis on his rank.

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm onto something here," he said stepping closer to her. "You really like me don't you?" he asked in that damnably cocky way of his, the tone that made Rose want to do nothing more than wipe the smirk of his face. With fire. "The rebel princess and the dashing scoundrel does have a certain ring to it," he continued airily.

Rose gaped at him, rendered temporarily speechless. "I was wrong," she finally managed. "You're not overanalyzing, you're delusional."

Ben looked almost serious for a moment. "I've been wrong about a lot of things, but I don't think I'm wrong about this."

Rose held his gaze for a few endless moments, her face unreadable. "Goodbye Ben," she said finally, her voice quiet. Then she turned and headed slowly back toward the castle, her skirts rustling softly against the grass.

Ben watched her go for a few moments, before turning back to the view and raking his hands through his hair with an exasperated sigh.

Rose stopped suddenly, chewing on her bottom lip. Finally she sighed, and a look of resolve spread across her face.

She slowly turned back to face him, her heart beating rather faster than usual. This wasn't like her at all, but for the first time in her life Rose didn't care.

"You know I've always wanted to see more of Albion," she said casually.

Ben gave a slight start at the sound of her voice and turned to face her, leaning casually against the railing. "Really," he asked arching an eyebrow at her.

"Well," she began, sauntering toward him, "running around planning a revolution didn't leave me a lot of time to enjoy the scenery. I mean I've never really done anything fun, or adventurous, or spontaneous. I was always the dutiful princess, then the dutiful hero," she continued, growing increasingly animated. "I want to live _my_ life a little before I spend the rest of it as a dutiful queen. And I know that they would never let me go by myself, and a loyal, heroic soldier would be the perfect escort," she finished, the words tumbling out of her in a rush, her face flushing slightly.

He closed the distance between them then, his face inches from hers. "Are you asking if you can come with me?" he asked with that same damned smirk.

Her lips moved upward in a smirk to match. "Maybe," she said, slowly lifting her eyes to meet his.

They stood like that for a single moment before the realization of just how much of her soul she had bared dawned on Rose, a realization which frankly terrified her.

"Look, it was a silly idea," she said starting to back away. "I – " the rest of her words were cut off when Ben's lips captured her own, one of his calloused hands moving to cup her face as the other slipped to her waist and pressed her against him.

When he finally pulled away, he was smiling at her, and she was slightly out of breath and more than a little dazed.

"I've been wanting to do that since I first laid eyes on you," he said, his thumb tracing the line of her cheekbone.

It took Rose another moment to fully regain her senses, and when she was fairly confident she had regained her powers of speech she grinned at him and replied, "I can see why, I've always found fighting off armies of hollow men to be terribly romantic."

They stood like that for a moment before Rose shook her head and looked up at him. "I guess the scoundrel really does get the princess" she mused.

Ben laughed at that. "I always told you you needed more scoundrels in your life," he replied roguishly as he leaned in for another kiss.

"I think you're more than enough Ben" Rose murmured as their lips met again.


End file.
